The Epic Fail of CitiCards

[hannaugh]

Never get a CitiCard.  I had one, and cancelling it has been a freaking nightmare.  I am on hold right now trying to get it cancelled for the 3rd time.  Here is what happened:

I had an autopay feature on my card.  All of a sudden, and for no apparent reason, autopay stopped.  I was late on a payment because of it.  So I called them up and made my payment, and had them reinstate autopay. 

The next month, I got an e-statement like normal, then nothing.  2 months later, I got a delinquent notice that I had not paid in 2 months.  WTF?  I called and had them refund the fees I had been charged for not paying since they were supposed to have reinstated my autopay and it hadn't worked.  The next month, I checked early and surprise surprise, NO AUTOPAY AGAIN. 

At this point I called them, told them I wanted to cancel my card because I no longer wanted to have any sort of relationship with a company that incompetent.  I paid off my account completely and cancelled the card. 

2 months later, I get a delinquent payment notice that I owe $1.99... on an ACCOUNT I NO LONGER HAVE.  I called them again and they told me they had waived the $1.99 and my account was now definitely cancelled out. 

Here we are a week later, and I get a phone call that I have a $2.49 bill that is overdue on an account that has been cancelled not once, but twice.  So I call them up, and they tell me it is a fee for Credit Protector, and that I'm still enrolled even though I have no account anymore.  So they transfer me to Credit Protector, and they say "No, you don't have an account with us and we don't see any fees in your name."  WWWWWWWTTTTTTTTTTFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!??????? 

Now they say I have to call back in a week.  This will be phone call number 7 to them regarding their incompetence.  Meanwhile, I hope my credit isn't being affected because of their screw up.  I paid on time consistently when I had my card until all of this BS started.  I'm so pissed. 

 

[exaN]

Aaah these companies... they say they make your life easier :dontknow:

 

[BigBeard]

cut a hole in your mattress and stuff cash money in there.  My Grandmother did that, and she never had any type of financial problems since the depression.  And, it was really awesome to find a huge wad of cash that nobody knew about when she passed!!!!!  RIP Grandma, and thanks for stuffing that hole in the mattress with cash!!

It's funny I'm glad I found it before anybody threw the mattress out.  No wonder all those years my dad and uncle offered to buy her a new bed and she refused.  I know why, I found the money, and kept my mouth shut!!

BUT,  that situation is a once in a lifetime deal,  never before did I ever stumble upon more than $5 in my life, and I haven't since!!

Looking back, I could have built a guitar or two with the cash, but I was in my early 20's, I just pissed it away!!!

Oh well, live and learn.

. :icon_scratch:

 

[Dan025]

i went through all that and more with not a credit card company but bank of america. they liked to lock out my account due to unusual activity and not tell me about it, i couldnt set my adress to an APO and even when i got hold of someone there that could i still got the locked card. my adress had an apo that they assumed was california due to the number begining with 9 and the bx had an APO adress beginning with 1 so the assumed it was new york, if i used the atm and went to the bx paying with my card in the same day or ever payed with the card in the country of japan id get a locked card. they swore it was fixed 4 times and could never happen again and that was after talking to many people who didn't have the level of authority to help me. BOA really has the mentality that the money belongs to them they make it as difficult for you to access it as posible at times. i had problems with bill payments, and when i tried to pay them manually then my card would be locked, id try wire transfers and it takes 3 days to clear, what makes that bad is A.) aditional late fees and B.) some of those bills were for the military club card and/or the military star card and my utilities at home, my first sergeant gets notified for those and i need to pay them and bring proof of payment ASAP.  i wanted the unusual activity protection taken off my account entirely but noone could do that, it was against there policies.

when i was unemployed i got chares for not having money deposited in the account. i used to have direct deposit and aparently if you lose direct deposit and dont change that with the bank they can penalize you for it! i had a sum of money in there equal to a years salary but not getting direct deposit made me a bad customer deserving of penalties!

 

[hannaugh]

Oh man, don't even get me started on B of A.  One time I was overdrawn by $5, and they charged me a fee of $35, which then caused the computer to charge me another fee because I was now overdrawn by $40, then another fee because I was overdrawn by $75, and another and so on until they had charged me $200 and something.  Luckily I got those charges mostly reversed because it was back when they could reverse charges.  Last year however, a similar thing happened and we ended up being charged $200, and when we went to the bank to complain about it, they actually told us that the bank couldn't afford to reverse fees, even if we were charged by mistake.  We told them we couldn't afford it because we now couldn't pay our rent and threatened to take our money to a different bank.  They reversed about 3/4 of it.  But seriously, if you are a bank that doesn't reverse fees that shouldn't have been charged in the first place, then you're basically stealing money from people.  I was very close to telling them I was going to call the cops. 

 

[Dan025]

Oh man, don't even get me started on B of A.  One time I was overdrawn by $5, and they charged me a fee of $35, which then caused the computer to charge me another fee because I was now overdrawn by $40, then another fee because I was overdrawn by $75, and another and so on until they had charged me $200 and something.  Luckily I got those charges mostly reversed because it was back when they could reverse charges.  Last year however, a similar thing happened and we ended up being charged $200, and when we went to the bank to complain about it, they actually told us that the bank couldn't afford to reverse fees, even if we were charged by mistake.  We told them we couldn't afford it because we now couldn't pay our rent and threatened to take our money to a different bank.  They reversed about 3/4 of it.  But seriously, if you are a bank that doesn't reverse fees that shouldn't have been charged in the first place, then you're basically stealing money from people.  I was very close to telling them I was going to call the cops. 

i had that happen too

they cant afford it my @ss, when i closed my account due to the fees that i couldnt pay for they reversed some of those fees. like a year ago i heard about a guy burning down a bank of america and believe me i've thought about it.

when they deregulated the market this somehow became legal according to that guy that tells you how to get free money, not mat lesko the guy that doesn't dress like the joker from batman. they dont even have to tell you when they make new policies that screw you that you never agreed to.

they have limits on how many times you can transfer funds between acounts now. you get charged for moving your money! but i still think the best was getting charged for not getting direct deposit income anymore. i had an account for 5 years and wasn't ever over drawn, not even once and had a rather large balance but i owed them money because i wasnt making any? WTF i think they even charge penalties for accounts that have no activity hoping noone will notice because the accout has been abandoned.

i dont want goverment regulation in economics but these are criminal acts in my mind. how is this legal? well i think i know how the banks got the goverment to work around it and it is because all money is the property of the federal reserve who lends it to the goverment and american people at a fee, the interest perpetuates inflation, there are other factors but this is the unfair and not logical one that i cant understand why it was agreed to. so under the idea that the money belongs to the federal reserve and is not the property and belongings of the individual they can make anything legal. maybe i have it all wrong but the system is f'ed up either way

 

[Lucky #7]

I work for a major insurance company supporting our annuities department.  Your issue sounds like one caused primarily by the systems behind the scenes.  They are extremely complicated and if one thing gets done wrong to an account/policy at some point, it can seriously screw things up.  I'm certainly not saying it is your fault or something like that, but it is also not necessarily that the people you're talking with are stupid either.  They definitely need to get it fixed.

 

[Dan025]

well that's some first post. and it's not even about guitars.

 

[baskruit]

well that's some first post. and it's not even about guitars.

Probably someone who we already know but decided to stay anonymous this time.

 

[-CB-]

Make sure you check your credit report Hannaugh, and have Citi correct anything there - that stuff will follow you for a long time

 

[AprioriMark]

Make sure you check your credit report Hannaugh, and have Citi correct anything there - that stuff will follow you for a long time

Seriously, I'm STILL fighting BoA over fees incurred 8 years ago from their not clearing both my normal paycheck AND a check from an auction sale for 22k.... for 24 days.  I understand putting a hold on the big check or whatever (not 24 days, but still), but because I deposited them at the same time, they put my paycheck on hold too.  Shouldn't be a big deal, but bills all hit at the wrong time, and while I wasn't living paycheck to paycheck in general, at that moment, I was paid once a month and a 24 day hold screwed all my autobillpays.  After escalating the issue well beyond normal support (and bank managers), I found out from the issuing bank that they'd cleared the funds 24 days before (that's right, the same day I deposited it, they had the money... they just didn't release it, or my paycheck, to me).

So, I incurred several hundred dollars in late fees because I had 3 bills overdrawn, and I didn't notice for 4 days.  After the "support" fiasco, I filed with everyone my lawyer could think of and refused to pay the fees.  I set up a new account with a credit union and have not looked back... aside to continually fight the credit hits that shouldn't be there but somehow keep popping up.

Sorry for the rant, but yeah, watch your credit.

-Mark

 

[Dan025]

Make sure you check your credit report Hannaugh, and have Citi correct anything there - that stuff will follow you for a long time

Seriously, I'm STILL fighting BoA over fees incurred 8 years ago from their not clearing both my normal paycheck AND a check from an auction sale for 22k.... for 24 days.  I understand putting a hold on the big check or whatever (not 24 days, but still), but because I deposited them at the same time, they put my paycheck on hold too.  Shouldn't be a big deal, but bills all hit at the wrong time, and while I wasn't living paycheck to paycheck in general, at that moment, I was paid once a month and a 24 day hold screwed all my autobillpays.   After escalating the issue well beyond normal support (and bank managers), I found out from the issuing bank that they'd cleared the funds 24 days before (that's right, the same day I deposited it, they had the money... they just didn't release it, or my paycheck, to me).

So, I incurred several hundred dollars in late fees because I had 3 bills overdrawn, and I didn't notice for 4 days.  After the "support" fiasco, I filed with everyone my lawyer could think of and refused to pay the fees.  I set up a new account with a credit union and have not looked back... aside to continually fight the credit hits that shouldn't be there but somehow keep popping up.

Sorry for the rant, but yeah, watch your credit.

-Mark

i was double charged for some computer parts, well i put the order in and it did not go through do to a mismatch in the adress (stupid APO that they would not let me change to in the correct format) so i tried again, didn't go through. ok so 2 transactions didnt clear, BOA kept them pending even though they would not authorize them. i called and asked why my available balance was down from $1000 into the negative and they said the not cleared transactions were pending and i need to wait till they expire! i said to put a stop payment and they refused! as if it were their money. then add the over draft fees, and the extended overdraft fees. it got messy.

what the hell i cant stop a payment to a buisness! if a buisness doesn't get paid let them take the issue up with the customer. i dont see how in any way that protects the interest of the bank, it only protects the buisness charging me, why should the bank give a damn about them! really. im there customer, protect me! if the bank stops the transaction due to an information mismatch they know the payment isnt being made hell they stoped it, i dont see why the money should be taken from me for several days despite my plees with costomer service and desire to stop the nonexistant payment! bank of america is the worst and i know credit card companies play all the same games. but that doesn't bother me. i cant get a credit card! i dont know why but i have been denied by my credit union and seers. it doesn't bother me any as i never intended to use one in the first place, i only applied cuz your available credit is part of your credit score and i figured that might help at some point in life.

 

[stormbringer]

I can't stand big banks... Go credit union if you can... Oh yeah, and buy silver & gold, and a safe...

 

[mullyman]

I work for a major insurance company supporting our annuities department.  Your issue sounds like one caused primarily by the systems behind the scenes.  They are extremely complicated and if one thing gets done wrong to an account/policy at some point, it can seriously screw things up.  I'm certainly not saying it is your fault or something like that, but it is also not necessarily that the people you're talking with are stupid either.  They definitely need to get it fixed.

You sound like one of those people you call on the phone and explain to them or ask them about the $300-500 that was taken from your account due to whatever fees they may be.  What does that person gain from not reversing the charges to you? Do they get to keep the money themselves?  Do you say, "Here Pilar, you managed to keep $850 in fees from being paid back to the customer, you can have the money? Does the person that you call really give a flying phuck that you may in fact not be able to feed your kids or pay your water bill because of these motherphucking fees? 

Honestly dude, you make a bunch of money and don't have to struggle day to day and look at it this way, if you have $20,000 surplus money in the bank, you don't necessarily sweat $100-300 here or there.  But if you were a person who each and every week worry about the three days before your paycheck how in gods name you are going to feed your family, you wouldn't for a second think to defed the cocksuckers like you that work in that theiving industry.

This time I mean what I say, go ahead and phucking ban me for calling some cocksucking insurance guy an ass!!!!

You may know guitars, but you don't know what the other half lives like!!!

Seriously Phuck you dude, quit your insurance job and work at mcdonalds and see how you like it when the bank charges you $300 for a mathmatical mistake on your part of $5.  You would see how shitety it is that banks have this right to steal your money without you being able to do it, you trust them with it and they steal it.  I know you are gonna try to explain that you sign all that crap when you open an account, but it's just plain wrong.  I was taught my my parents and grandparents that it is wrong to steal unless you are starving,  I don't see any banks or any bank employee starving. 

That being said, I am in this situation.  It is sunday night.  my wife and I have I think $4 and some change, no food in the fridge and neither of us get our unemployment checks till tuesday night.  And we are both pretty sure that the electric bill check is going to clear on monday, so we will be in the hole not only for the check, but also for the NSF fee that the bank will certainly explain to us that they are entitled to because I signed a phucking piece of paper 10 years ago that said they were entitled to $40 of my money because the check is about $14 more than what is in the checking account.  So there is another $40 the bank gets to steal from me, because they need it more than I do.  $40 less groceries for my family next time I go to the store.

This is one of the reasons I haven't built a guitar in a year, I don't have the money.  Every time we get a little money, it is never enough to catch everything up, so we play the 'pay what is going to get shut off this month' game. 

Sorry if I get all pissed off at you banker types, you honestly don't know what it is like to not be able to provide the essentials of family life.  Say all you want about not having an education, or working and going to school for what you had, it doesn't help it if you never had the opportunity for whatever reason to further your education past high school.  I'm a smart person, very adept with using my hands, but do you know how degrading it really is to work a skilled job in a mechanical or construction setting for $10 an hour and see the suits go into thier air conditioned office and make $50 an hour?  I don't knock using your brain for your job and being compensated, but don't you think the guy who is roofing your neighbor's house is actually physically working harder all his work day than than the business suit, martini and back 9 with the regional corporate blowjob placement coordinator?  Why does the suit make 6 or 7 times more money per year than the guy who is literally busting his back to work?  What makes him more special or worth more as a person financially than the guy who gets filthy at work and can't scrub the grease out of his fingerprints because it is imbedded in there

So, again, I know there are a lot of suits on our forum, and really I don't care if y'all think I should be drawn and quartered for my opinion on the status of our working conditions and working corporate stepladder.  I mean c'mon if you are making 6 figures and you know somone who makes minimum wage, what would it hurt to throw them 10 grand?  What are you saving it for? A rainy day?  It's gonna be pretty rainy here soon.  And make your spoiled rich kids know what it is to earn something.... make them pay for school.  Like I said, if you have over $100,000 in the bank in surplus, what would it hurt to go out one day and find the most destitute people you can find and give them a grand or so.  You never know, that might just be the bump they need to get their dream going

But yeah, never trust a person that puts on  a suit and tie and shaves for work.  They call it work, but really what they are doing is sitting there figuring out new and exciting ways to phuck regular working Joe's out of their hard earned money

Use a credit union.  Every dollar I put in my credit union is a 'share' of the company.  Than means I own 9 ($9 balance) shares of my credit union.  Coincidentally the minimum cash transaction at the CU is $10 and the minimum balance is $5, so I can't access my money unless I deposit $6, so I can get the $4 out of there and still leave in $5.  More jerkoff bank rules!!!  Oh, well, at least I own $9 or a business.


Yeah Phuck insurance people, attorneys, and especially bankers, they don't have 'honest' jobs

Must be nice to be able to have enough disposable income to buy a warmoth body and neck once a month

I find it very interesting that you complain about living from paycheck to paycheck, have an empty fridge and play the "pay what's about to get turned off game" yet, at the same time, you are paying a monthly fee to use the internet. I never figured the net to be a necessity. I bet you have a 42in or bigger digital TV too, not to mention a blu-ray disk player and probably TIVO too.  I find it difficult to have sympathy for your situation.........and I highly doubt that if you were making 5 or 6 figures a year that you'd be tossing many bones to the less fortunate.
MULLY

 

[jackthehack]

Re: Skank of America...

Always stay far, far away from these crooks; my 2 favorite horror stories:

1.) A few years back a friend and I got a side job going to Puerto Rico to update the computers/network/accting. software for a good sized business owned by another friend that had moved down there. He sent us a check drawn on the Chase Bank of San Juan for ca. $100K to cover the costs of the hardware we had to purchase/ship ahead of us. As the incompetent nimrods working at BofA are so incredibly stoopid that they don't know that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, they keyed the $100K check for "foreign collections" even though the ultimate clearinghouse is Chase in NYC. It took the better part of the month for the check to get cleared and the checks to our suppliers all bounced and they wanted to charge us an ungodly amount of bounced check fees for their mistake. It took months and death threats to the branch manager to get documentation to clear ourselves with our vendors and get the fees waived.

2.) An ex-girlfriend got a very sizable cashier's check after a long probate deal after her mother passed away. She deposited it at BofA and wrote a bunch of checks to pay off every bill/credit card/other debt she had. For reasons that I don't think ever got explained rationally, BofA took 8 days to clear a cashier's check drawn on themselves, bounced all of her checks and it took her forever to get it all straightened out and fee/charges issues resolved.

Bank locally, but even then do some homework as to whom you're dealing with...

 

[line6man]

never trust a person that puts on  a suit and tie and shaves for work.  They call it work, but really what they are doing is sitting there figuring out new and exciting ways to phuck regular working Joe's out of their hard earned money

That's a pretty broad generalization, isn't it?
Perhaps you never had the opportunity to go to college and get your degrees and all of that, but you can't hold it against a person for being more successful in life than you are.
:dontknow:

 

[erogenousjones17]

It's not even necessarily a question of being more successful or not. How do you define success anyway? Is it money? Because I know folks who work in construction and don't wear suits or ties but certainly rake in a lot more cash than I will at my inevitable office job. And some of them are just as crooked as any banker...

 

[hannaugh]

Yeah fred, I understand your frustration.  Believe me, I do.  But I didn't grow up with a lot of money.  There were times where my mom had $0 in her checking account and not much more in savings.  We got by because of the good graces of my grandparents, who we lived with for many years (but she paid rent to for much of the time we were there).  But here's the thing that I can't figure out about complaining about being poor and not being able to go to school:  most places in the United States have financial aid for people who can't afford to go to college.  Why not apply for that?  I did.  We had no money, so I applied for a grant and got 4 years worth of cash to cover tuition and books.  Not enough to move out or have a fabulous time throwing money around, but enough to get through school.  I didn't even have to go to a community college and then transfer to a 4 year, I did it all at a state university, although now I kind of wish I had done the community college -> 4 year thing.  

Sure, there are people who fall into that category where they aren't poor enough to qualify for financial aid but still don't have enough money to go to college.  I knew lots of those people in school.  You know what they did?  They went to community college for 2 years (it is very affordable), then transferred to a 4 year school later.  They did school part time and worked part time to support their education.  My friend Jessica even worked 3 jobs equaling 40 hours per week while going to school full time.  She never slept, but she still did it because that's what she had to do.  You do what you have to, but if you are smart, it's not that hard to figure out a way to get a college education if you don't have the money for it.

 

[AprioriMark]

Expenses will always rise to meet or exceed income.  Unless you stop spending money as a hobby~ 

-Mark

 

[TBurst Std]

Expenses will always rise to meet or exceed income.  Unless you stop spending money as a hobby~ 

-Mark

Ding, Ding

We have a winner!